Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: I am pleased to be able to share with you that this is our first Sunday in a year up here in Carroll Stream, up here at 351 South Main Place.
So that's where you're sitting right now. We've been actually doing church for eight years. Well, nine years now. We just crossed our ninth anniversary, and we're excited about the fact that there was no church before this. And now all of a sudden, there is gave you some news on what was happening last week in the run of our church. And the Lord is making some quick changes for us. One of those things is he brings people in and he moves people on. And one of the families we are going to say goodbye to is the Patterson family. We told you about this. We love the Patterson family and they have been so instrumental in all that we've been doing here at Carolstream for the last nine years.
I've loved serving with Chris and Megan, and their kids are just awesome, watching their kids grow.
But the Lord's leading them to another place, and so we're excited for that. And so in their honor, we are designating next Sunday as Patterson Sunday.
So it's.
So it's Resurrection Sunday, but it's also Patterson Sunday, and we're going to celebrate them a little bit. We have some things planned for next week, so I hope you can be a part of next week. You definitely will want to be here. All right.
Because you're going to miss it if you're not with us next week as we spend a little bit of time honoring them and still talking about the subject of the church.
So today we're going to continue our conversation on the church, and I've called this series the Redemptive Church. I'm amazed at what God has done through the church in our world today and how even though politicians continually seem to not do things well, that God is always in charge and the church is always in the background, always moving, always working, always seeing redemptive processes happening, even when bombs are falling from the sky sometimes. Mark, it is good to see you. My brother Mark is in the house.
Sorry, Mark. You hate that, don't you?
How's your knee? How's your knee?
Yeah, good. All right. Good, good, good. Good to see you.
Yeah, not too long, right?
All right. Good stuff. Sorry, sorry.
You ever watch the movie where the squirrel shows up? Squirrel? Yeah.
That's your pastor. Just so you know. All right.
2016, we started the building process, started meeting Saturday nights in Bartlett. The church that launched us and prayed for us and supported US and in March 2017, crossed a milestone where we moved into Fountain View Athletic center in Carroll Stream. And that was amazing.
April 2025, just last year, you saw the video already about what this place looked like before we moved in. Offices all around this really weird carpet up here.
There was a hallway right here. We tore the hallway out, put a children's wing in here. The Lord really blessed.
And then walking through this new milestone for us, which is our move to be an independent church.
And so keep praying for us. I just want to remind you, if you have any questions about what that looks like, we will be more than willing to answer any questions that you have.
But we're anxious to see what the Lord has next for our church.
Do you remember the pictures I showed you about what it looks like to be a family?
God talks about his children like his family.
And so we talked about these wacky pictures. You ever do any family photos that you're just like, oh, I wish I hadn't done that, Right? So here's one. Never dress up as Star Trek. There's one more. This one, I swear, Darren is one of those little guys right there. But these family photos, each congregation is a picture of the kingdom of God in a location. If you think of it that way, that's really what each local church is. Local churches are not in competition with one another. Local churches all follow. You can take that down. Local churches.
Callie's back there going, no, I really like this picture. I'm going to leave it up there for a while. All right, we can take that down.
Local churches are local expressions of God's family.
Each church looks different, has different people in it with different gifts, different talents, but they work together and they follow the same great commission. So local churches are not in competition with one another. We all follow the same great commission.
We may look different because we're different people with different talents and. And maybe we do different kinds of ministries, but ultimately our commission is the same, and it's in Matthew 28. This is our commission.
Jesus, before he leaves, tells his disciples in Matthew, chapter 28, verse 19, go, therefore get out of here.
Stop staying around.
It is time to spread the word. Spread the gospel. So the first word he says is go.
Go, therefore, make disciples of how many nations church.
Yeah. There's no one excluded from this. All nations means all nations around the globe baptizing them. We get to do that this morning again. Isn't that great? Two in a row. And if you are thinking about being baptized, we could do another baptism next week. All you need to do is chat with me and we can make that happen. But this is why we do what we do. We make disciples. We baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. That's the Trinity teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. That's what we do every Sunday and in our small groups. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And each church does this differently for us. We have a tagline. We say, go, grow and overcome. Yeah. So that's just a tagline.
But the churches are not in competition. We share the Great Commission.
We just look and do it differently from location to location. With this Great Commission, God is extending an invitation to all people from all nations, in all backgrounds and all time periods to come and be a part of his family.
And as a local church, we do that here in Carroll Stream.
So the main passage that I'm working with over the last two Sundays is Ephesians chapter 2 or Ephesians 2:19. We've already read it this morning. If you want to turn there on your phones or something like that, get a Bible app. Bible apps are great. My wife uses a blue letter Bible. It's a great one. If you want to download an app, it's a great way to read the Bible through the day. I'd encourage you to do that. If you want to look it up on your Bibles. Right now, It's Matthew, Ephesians 2, verse 19. And here's what it says. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Now let that sink in. God is building a family, and he wants all people, all nations everywhere, to be a member of that family.
He's done this since the beginning.
In the Garden of Eden, God began building a family with Adam and Eve.
His goal in doing that was to fill the earth with people who worship him, who live life as he would want them to live in the way that they were constructed and built to live. But sin, Genesis 3 comes into the picture, ruins everything. And you want to know the main way that sin ruins things through relationships is the main way that sin. Sin doesn't invent anything. It just twists and ruins what God already invented.
So our relationships became affected and infected by sin. And so instead of building healthy relationships, we talked about this last week. We build relationships that are selfish and relationships that want something from somebody else. And to be honest with you, like, even doing marriage ceremonies, I told you this last week, you've never heard a marriage ceremony with the word if in it, right?
It's because you don't say if. You know, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, till death do us part.
If you cook me breakfast every single morning.
There's no ifs.
Because relationships that are built on ifs are not covenant relationships.
They are relationships that are built on contingencies.
This is not what God intended. God's love for us, does it have any ifs in it?
No ifs, right? We sang about that this morning. God loves us. God died for us. God wants us to be his children. There's no ifs as far as the heavens are from the earth. So far as my love extended toward you. There is no if in the statement and in our relationships it's meant to be the same way. However, sin comes in and we use the illustration of Gollum last week. When sin comes in, it twists the relationship so that now it becomes selfish and self serving. Gollum steals the ring from his friends. In the Lord of the Ring.
He steals a ring from his friend and he goes and he hides. And his relationships were destroyed.
No longer did he enjoy being with people, no longer did he enjoy relationships. He became selfish and self oriented and he runs and he hides. And that's what sin does. Am I not, Am I right?
Right. When sin enters into a relationship, what does it cause? It causes one of the people in that relationship to grab what they can and run and hide.
It's not intended to be the way that God built relationships.
And so we want to continue the conversation today. And to bring you up to speed, I've just put the points up until I get to my main point, which is one of my. I told the team before we started this morning, I said this is one of my favorite illustrations. But I want to bring you up to speed with the points we talked about last week. Point number one, in the church, Jesus restores what sin destroys.
So in this place we live in relationships that are not built on ifs, they are built on covenant. Relate. As God loves us, so we love one another.
This is what Jesus said. A new command I give to you that you love one another. That is not a new command.
Right? We're supposed to love one another. That's from the Garden of Eden. The reason Jesus says it's a new command is because you got to finish the statement. A new command that I give you that you love one another even as I have loved you, you need to love one another. That's the new command, unconditional no ifs.
In Ephesians 2, it highlights this. You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
Jesus in Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple, into the Lord.
In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for the Spirit of God.
This. This holy place that he builds, it hits in the face of what sin does. Sin tears.
God creates a holy place where we come together.
So our speech changes, our love changes. Ephesians 5:21 gives us all of this stuff about how our thoughts change. We're able to submit to one another, to find forgiveness and restoration, have hearts full of joy in the church.
What sin broke internally, the Spirit rebuilds relationally.
Point number two, the church is where these relationships are built, these local assemblies. Ephesians 2:22. In him you also. We already read this. Are being built together into a dwelling place for God's Spirit. We talked about this last week. Ecclesia is the word for church in the New Testament. In Greek, it simply means assembly.
In the Old Testament, it was synagogue.
Synagogue was a place where you would meet together. It's the same kind of connotation. And in fact, in Hebrews 10, it says, when you synagogue together, when you meet together, when you do church. So church is not a place you go to. Church is something you do. Let me say that again because it's really profound. Church is not a place you go to. Like I read in the news a little while ago, the church burned down on the corner. Oh, my goodness. The church burned down. All these people are gone.
No, the church is a building. What they mean is the building burned down.
And that's what we've changed our minds to in 2026. Jesus never intended for the church to be a building. The church is a thing we do together. We church. We synagogue together. We are churching right now. That's what we do. It's an action. And it occurs. It's important to God. It occurs 114 times in the New Testament, this idea that we are meant to be churching together. Point number three again last week. This is where God rules. And we let him. God rules.
Jesus himself. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
This is a place where God rules and we let him. We love it. The kingdom gives us this freedom to be who God created us to be, and still he is in charge.
So if you look at our church. And you say, well, this is Craig's church. You would be wrong.
It's not Craig's church. It's not John's church. It's not the elders church, not the Patterson's church.
It's not a church that we own. It is Jesus church, and we just do it together every single Sunday.
So this is where I want to pick up today.
Number four.
Church is not a place where you attend. It's a place where you.
Oh, you got to say it. It's so good. Church is not a place you attend. It's a place where you.
You belong.
You're part of the family.
Look at. Look at Ephesians. You are no longer strangers and aliens. You know, the first thing you teach your kid is when you see somebody you don't know, stranger, stranger danger. Stay away from them. Right, Stranger. And Jesus is saying, no, no, no, no. In the church, there's no strangers, there's no strangers. You are no longer strangers and you're no longer aliens.
I am a legal alien. Did you know that? I'm from Canada. I am Canadian in my citizenship. I am a legal alien. It says that on my card. I am a legal alien. You know, came down here in a spaceship.
In the church, there are no strangers and there are no aliens.
But you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Built on the foundation of the apostles, we are restored into a relationship with those around us that is meant to be family.
There's no strangers. There's no aliens. There's only family.
In the 80s, there was this jacket called the Members Only jacket. Do you remember this jacket?
Yeah. And if you were really, really important, you could get one. No, that's not true. Anyone could get these jackets. These jackets were amazing. They were literally. It was a brilliant ploy to sell jackets because they were called Members Only jacket. And if you wanted one, it's like, yeah, there they are right there. Remember the Members Only jackets?
It sounded exclusive, like you had to be somebody to wear it. But here's the truth. Anyone could walk into Kohl's and buy one.
Anyone. You didn't have to earn it. You didn't have to belong to a team. You didn't even have to be known.
You just went in and you paid money. And if you paid money, you could get a Members Only jacket. My dad owned one of these, all right? So I know you don't have to be anybody really important in order to own one of these jackets. You just put it on and it looked like you belong. If anybody had any questions, you just go, hang on a second.
Read right there.
Members only.
That's one of the problems we have in the. In our view of Church in 2026. Sometimes we treat church like it's a members only jacket.
People show up, they speak the language, they blend in. But deep down, there's always a part of people that feel like, I can't fit in.
But Ephesians 2 says something radically different.
Listen, when you're part of a church, when you're part of a local assembly like this one, you don't have to try to belong.
You don't have to put a tag on your shirt. You don't have to wear a V on your shirt.
You don't have to pretend to belong. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you belong.
You belong to the family of God.
There's no strangers, there's no aliens. There's only members. Because you didn't have to buy your way in.
You'd have to go to Kohl's, you'd have to put on the right garb. You don't even have to speak the same way as those around you.
All you have to do is be a follower of Jesus Christ.
Jesus gives you your entry into the family of God.
In the 80s, you could wear this jacket without being a member. But in the church, God isn't interested in the way that you look.
He's not interested in the way you speak.
He's only the only thing. He doesn't want you and invite you in so that you can put on a facade so that people around you go, oh, you must be going to church. You must be a churchgoer.
Doesn't work that way.
He's inviting you to be stitched into the fabric of the family that he is building.
So church, I would tell you this up on the screen. The church is not just a place you attend, it's a place God created where you could belong.
The church is God's way that he fixes the fall in Genesis 3.
Genesis 3 pulls us apart from one another.
God builds the church and is building the church so that the church could be built and grow together.
Because Christ is not dwelling in isolated individuals. He's dwelling in all of us, in a people that follow Him.
The Bible calls this a mystery.
In Colossians, it literally says this. In Colossians 1:27, it says this to them. God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is, here's the mystery. We're going to tell you what it is. Like, this isn't much of a Scooby Doo thing, right? Because he's going to tell you, here's the mystery, and now here's what it is. So it used to be hidden, but now here's what it is.
We're going right to the last chapter. Here's who the killer is. Here's the mystery revealed. The mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And that you there. You know how we talk sometimes and we say, you're talking to your kid, and you say, listen, I am talking to you right now. I'm not talking to Jimmy, and I'm not talking to Harry, and I'm not talking to. I'm talking to you. Look at my eyes. I'm talking to you. Right? We do that when we talk to our kids.
This is not the same you.
This you is like when we talk to y', all, you like being from the self, y'. All.
So this is not a singular you.
This is a plural you.
This is God saying to us, here's the mystery. The mystery is Christ is in you, and that's your hope of glory.
And he's not just in you. He's in the church down the street. He's in them.
I mean, other churches down the street. He's in them.
This is a mystery. Christ is in you plural.
Not like a private experience. It is a shared identity. Church is not a jacket you wear alone.
It's not just some of us have the jackets on. And we're called members only.
We are all a part of the family of God built together.
And being in a family means, listen, there's support.
There is fellowship, There is accountability.
Look at all these things on the screen. There are benefits to be shared with all. There is purpose.
Being a part of God's family means all of these things are a part of what our church is doing, as well as those churches who follow Jesus Christ.
When I became a dad, Abby was our first, and it took me a while to figure out how to be a dad. I'm kind of still figuring it out because my kids are still growing up, and I'm thinking to myself, all right, we're done being a dad. Let me tell you. I'm figuring out. Apparently, you're never done being a dad.
They still come around. They still need you. And I love it. I love it. But because they grow and go through different things, I need to grow and adapt as well. I'm still learning how to be a dad. But when I was younger and Abby was just really young, she would do something so obnoxious.
I would be in my office, and I'm working. I am working. I am busy. And she would do, do, do, right down the hallway, open the door, come on in. And she'd say, daddy, I have a problem. I need your help. And I'm like, get on the calendar, girl.
Like, call my secretary. Who do you think you are, prancing into my office and just telling me you need. Like, I would be.
Anybody who comes through that door needs to make an appointment. So go see someone and make an appointment, right?
No, you don't do that. That's crazy. Why? Because she's family, and that's the difference.
When she's family, she comes into my office and I'm going, work. Yeah, work can wait. I got a little girl right here that needs my attention. And I pick her up and I put her on my knee, and I say, what is killing you? What do you need right now? What is so important that it just can't wait right now?
My Barbie has the hair all curled up on her head, and I can't get it off.
All right, let's go fix your Barbie.
Fix the Barbie. And then I go back to my real job, right?
She never made an appointment. There was no hesitation on her part.
There was no apologies.
Why? Because she had a relationship. And listen, in the church, this is really important in the church. It is not about religion. It is about relationship.
If you have a relationship with God built on religion, you always got to make an appointment.
You always got to do the right thing. You got to fill in the blanks. You got to pay the right price. You got to do all the things you're supposed to.
This is not the way that a family works. And this is not the mystery hidden from ages past, which is Christ in you hope of glory. When we become a part of the church, we become family.
This is why you can talk to God whenever you want to.
And he will lay down whatever he's doing, even though he doesn't do that. You understand? But he has time for us.
Abby had unfiltered access to me anytime because she's family. And everyone is invited into God's family in the same way.
Don't you love? You can talk to God anytime you want. I love that. Like, I talk to God, like, in some of the weirdest positions ever.
Like, I wouldn't talk to other people when I'm talking. I had a hard time talking to people when I'm like doing personal things, right?
But I could talk to God whenever.
Point number five.
Anyone who belongs to this family has an essential part to play.
There's nobody in the family of God that is meant to be here because they just. They're not that important and God didn't have anything else to do with them.
Every person, church, say it with me. Every person, say it.
Every person has a part to play.
Every person has a gift to give.
Every person has a talent invested in them by God that's meant to make his kingdom grow.
Everyone who belongs to God's family has an important part to play.
And the Bible gives us details. Look at this in Acts 2:42. And they devoted themselves.
This is what the first church was doing. Devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching, to fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer.
Awe came upon every soul. Many wonders and signs were done through the prophets. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. You see all of these words about being together, being together, being together.
They had everything in common. They were. Listen, verse 45. They were selling their possessions and they were selling their belongings and giving the proceeds to all as all had need.
So if you're in the church and you're going, oh, man, I just lost my job. I don't know what I'm going to do. I got no income. What am I going to do? I didn't see this coming. And, well, the church rallies, just like a family would rally. We come around and you're going through, oh, I got a real problem in my relationship with my husband or my wife, and I don't know what I'm going to do. We rally, we come to, oh, my kids are making the dumbest decisions ever. I can't believe they're my kids. Maybe they got switched in the hospital. And we rally. We come together because we're family.
These guys were selling their possessions and belongings because they didn't have any money. They needed to get money to support one another.
So they would go home and they would sell what they had so they could give money so that somebody could eat in the church.
And day by day, they were attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. This is how this verse talks about relationships being restored that were driven into destruction by the fall.
The new church thrived in these relationships. They learned together, they shared life together, they ate together, they grew together, they Prayed together.
They praised God together. This is a restored picture of what happened in the family with Gollum. He goes, he steals a ring.
And he doesn't just get the ring and he doesn't. And then he loses the ring. You remember? And Frodo comes along and finds it. He doesn't just lose the ring now. He's lost everything. He's lost relationships. It changed who he was. He was isolated. He hid. You remember Gollum? He'd be whispering to himself, my precious. You remember this?
He trusted no one and he lived in the dark.
And the more isolated he became, the more deteriorated his mind became. And that's what sin does. Sin drives us away from healthy relationships.
But Acts 2 shows us the opposite. The spirit of God is about pulling us back into those healthy relationships so that we can support one another. We can pray for one another, we can serve one another, we can worship together.
The God who did this all for us.
This is where we run off the rails in 2026.
You don't just find a church to watch. You find a church to belong to.
Some people go to church and they think to themselves, oh, I'm going to go to church and watch how it goes here.
And then the next Sunday comes and they go, I want to watch what they do. I'm just going to watch. I'm going to watch. I'm going to watch, I'm going to soak.
It didn't meet my needs today.
I was watching carefully and it didn't do what I needed it to do. That's a problem. See, a church is not something that you watch, something you belong to.
You don't come to consume an experience. You come to contribute to the mission. You're not here to sit in a crowd. You're here to be known by the family. You're not just attending. You are literally becoming a visible part of what God is rebuilding in this world.
Church is where God restores broken relationships.
You may think to yourself, there's some people in this church I don't get along with. Well, that's a problem.
Because here is where God's kingdom grows healthy.
This is where God calls more people to be a part of his kingdom. And this is where we participate in the same endeavor.
And so our efforts here are to restore and rebuild relationships, not watch them break apart.
So here's some. So what's number one? Stop hiding. Start belonging. Yeah, like that.
You were saved. Not to live in isolation, not to watch, not to sit and soak, not to stay on the edge. But you were saved so that you can step in and see what God can do through and with you.
So I would suggest that you join a group. We have community groups. You should join a community group. We've done baptism last week. We're doing it this week. I'd love to do baptism next week. Maybe that's you. Maybe you're thinking yourself. Yeah, I've never been baptized. I wonder why that's the case. Or I was baptized as an infant. So why are we baptizing adults? I would love to explain. Or even young, young ones here. But I would love to explain that to you. All you need to do, pick up the phone, give me a phone call, see me afterwards. We can set up a coffee and I'll explain to you, do a little baptism class with you as to why we do baptisms the way we do here. And you can jump in on this. We can do this next week.
Maybe you need to stop and consider what your relationship with the Lord really is like.
Maybe you've never taken stock and you've always assumed that you had a relationship with God. But all of this kind of talk, this is weird. This is different. And so maybe you need to explore being saved for the very first time.
We can do that with you today too. Stop at the prayer booth afterwards. One of our best prayers in the house is going to be back there today. And he will talk with you and pray with you afterwards. And he would love to introduce you to Jesus Christ. So you can walk out of here knowing Christ is in you.
The mystery of the gospel has been birthed in your heart.
So stop hiding. Start belonging. What would a step toward the family look like for you?
Number two? Stay connected to the source.
You can't build healthy relationships without the spirit of God.
So stay connected to the source.
It's like running without batteries that doesn't work. Or running with low batteries and you're going really low.
You need to make sure your batteries are fresh. That means you need to stay connected to the source. And that's having a healthy relationship with God through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And that will give you the ability to have healthy relationships here with one another as well.
And finally, number three, Engage.
Star Trek. You see this? See how I sandwich this together? Star Trek at the beginning, Star Trek at the end.
Engage.
That was Captain Picard's thing. Engage. Okay, you're not trying to. I understand. Engage. Don't observe. Christianity is not a performance. It is participation.
So your presence, your presence and your mind and your heart matter.
I have to tell you, this is not my notes, but I have to tell you this. After I did, I began doing our church series.
When we did our series through April, it was wonderful. We did a series on what it means to be a good steward.
The last message that I did in that series, I really emphasized, listen, you have a gift. You should use it. And afterwards, I had people come up to me in the church and say, hey, you know what? I need to use my gifts. And I'm like, going, you gotta be kidding me. Like an answer to prayer that fast.
But this is how the Holy Spirit works. And if you're here this morning and you're feeling the prompting of the Holy Spirit to do something, engage, don't observe. Stop observing, start serving.
You have a gift. It's meant to be used. And you'd be surprised at what God can do with you and through you. You will be surprised, but you won't be surprised if you don't take the first step.
So engage, don't observe your presence and your heart matters.
We weren't saved by God to sit in a row. We were saved to be built into something that corrects the fall.
The fall tears apart God's spirit, pulls together.
We're family in the church. Your faith can grow in a joyful way. And one of the best ways I think, that we do this as a church is when we celebrate here at baptism. This is a moment of time when people in our church have come to the conclusion that they've given their lives to Jesus. They know they have a relationship with Jesus, but they want you to know your family. You should know.
And so they have made a decision in scripture. This was done all the time. You'll never find in scripture a baby that was baptized. Did you know that? It's not there, but you'll have a lot of people who come to know Jesus, who are baptized, and it's always in that order. They give their life to Jesus. They believe his word, they accepted his message however it says it. And then they were baptized, and that's what we would do baptism here at our church.
People are growing in the Lord. They're growing in their faith. And they hit a point where they go, I'm done playing around. I want everybody to know I belong to Jesus and I'm serious about my faith.
And it's always different how it happens with different people in the church, but it always leads them to the same place where they stand in the water. They share their testimony of how Christ has changed their heart, and then they get baptized. And baptism is great because it's a picture of them dying with Jesus, going underwater, and then coming up out of water being raised together with Jesus.
Not only are they explaining it verbally, they're demonstrating it visibly so that you know they are his.
And if that interests you, we can get you baptized pretty quickly as well.
So I want to invite our baptism candidates to come on up this morning. We have two this morning which are very, very cool.
These two people are very important to our church. One has been around for a long time, and one has been around for not a long time, but both of them. Thank you, sir.
Both of them have given their lives to Jesus and have a faith in Jesus Christ that they want to share with you right now. So, Mary, you're going to go first, right?
[00:35:44] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:35:44] Speaker A: Mary, you're going to go first.
I'll just.
Now. All right. Awesome. All right, let me introduce both of these guys, both these ladies.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's so childish, isn't it?
All right, hang on a second. We'll get this fixed.
Get this fixed, okay? In the meantime, let me introduce to you these ladies, and then I'm going to have. I'm going to have you sit down, Lindsay, and then we'll move with Mary. Okay?
So Lindsay has been. Lindsay and Tom, and they're wonderful kids, have been around for a while. Anna and Rose and wherever the. Where's Jake? Is he here? Oh, he's coming out. Okay, cool. So they've been around. You actually saw them in the video.
They did the sign out front. When you come in and you see that sign from Nehemiah, it says they put their hands to the good work. That was what their family did as a blessing to our church when we moved into this new place. Lindsay has also been involved with some of our youth things. And you went on a mission trip with us last year, which was really awesome.
And so Lindsay and her family are very important to us. I'm gonna talk more about you in just a minute, but you can go sit down over there for now. I'll call you up in a minute.
Mary has been with us just for a short time, right?
[00:37:13] Speaker B: Since October, I think.
[00:37:15] Speaker A: Since October. And you came because you have some good friends that brought you here, right?
[00:37:19] Speaker B: My friend Theresa brought me heresa Mrs.
[00:37:22] Speaker A: Berger, we call her. She's one of the best teachers I have ever known, and she has a heart for Jesus as well. But, Mary, you have a very interesting testimony. You've done this and redone this. And redone this. And I can't wait for everybody to hear in just a short snippet how the Lord has led in your life. But Mary's been involved with all kinds of different churches, using her gifts in all different ways, and just now has decided that it's time for her to be baptized. And I'm so excited for you to do this. Would you stand over here so we can get you in the light?
All right, all right, all right. You want to step in and we'll do this while you're inside? You want to do that? Here, I'll take your sheet. All right.
Yeah. You don't want to do that. That would be really bad.
Okay. All right, so, Mary, you can just stand and face the congregation and share with them your testimony. All right, to face this way right over here.
[00:38:23] Speaker B: Oh, oh.
[00:38:24] Speaker A: First of all, Mary has some friends that are joining us online. So, yeah, they'd be watching through that camera.
[00:38:33] Speaker B: Mr. Bonnie in Minnesota is joining online, and my sister Anna in Tennessee. And here for my support, I have Teresa and Lisa and Jeff.
Now we go this way.
[00:38:50] Speaker C: Okay. Okay.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior when I was 12 and I was baptized in the Methodist Church. To me, this means that Jesus died on the cross as the unconditional promise that our sins are forgiven.
John 1:7 says, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son, cleanses us from all sin.
Throughout my life, I have prayed to Jesus and felt that he protected me and gave me guidance and answered my prayers. Jesus got me through some really rough times.
For example, I was working at a company 80 hours a week, and it was a horrible company. I prayed to Jesus for guidance on what to do. The next day, the company let me go.
As I walk to my car, I thank Jesus. Sometimes the answers to our prayers are not what we expect, but are what we need.
For 15 years, I attended another church, but I was missing a more Christ oriented church. I prayed that Jesus helped me find a church. Then my friend Teresa invited me to vce.
I feel like I have come home to a place where I can continue to grow as a Christian.
By going through VCE's membership classes and recounting my journey with Jesus, I decided that I wanted to renew my commitment to him. Being baptized as an adult is a step I want to take towards that renewal of my commitment to Jesus.
[00:40:36] Speaker A: Okay.
All right.
Yeah. Don't hang on to that pool too carefully. All right, Mary I've enjoyed. I've enjoyed getting to know you and seeing how the Lord has blessed you and served you. Mary, actually is one of the people that a couple of weeks ago, when I did that message on service, came up afterwards and said, hey, listen, I've done finances for a long time, and I'd love to help the church any way that they need financially, just keeping track of our finances and doing things. And that's just such a heart, isn't it? Just to come up right after a service and say, I'm willing to pitch in. And that's Mary's heart. And I'm so glad that I get to know you that way, and you will be helping us here in the near future, which is exciting. So, Mary, the most important thing is, have you come to know the Lord as your savior? You know that he died for your sins and you belong to him.
[00:41:45] Speaker C: Yes, I do.
[00:41:46] Speaker A: Based upon your profession of faith and in accordance with his word, I baptize you, my sister, in the name of. Don't hold your breath yet.
In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Okay.
Yeah. There you go. All right. We don't make it easy. I know. All right.
Well done.
Well done.
There we are.
[00:42:19] Speaker C: Harder to get out than to get
[00:42:20] Speaker A: in, because I'm all wet.
All right, thank you. Good stuff. You can sit right over here. Just wait a second.
All right.
Thank you, sir.
Lindsay, so glad you have your family here. Do you want to introduce your family to us?
[00:42:42] Speaker C: Sure. You already introduced my immediate family, but my mom, my mother in law, my father in law are here as well. And Maddie and Jessica.
[00:42:54] Speaker A: Tom, we're so glad that you're here as well. And I know all of this is your service to the church and your following. Lord and believer's baptism is done because your family's heart is for him. And that's exciting. And I'm excited to see the way the Lord has built into your life and used your gifts already.
One thing that I love about Lindsay is when we were on our trip last year, we went to North Carolina to help with the hurricane relief. And every time Lindsay would show up, no matter what, the jobs. And the jobs were not fun.
The jobs were like crawling under houses and moving stuff around in the muck, or the jobs were under trailers and moving stuff around under trailers, and. And the jobs were demanding. But every time Lindsay would show up, no matter how she was feeling, this is what you would get right here. You'd always get the smile. And I love that about Lindsay. No matter what she does, she does with a smile, and I'm grateful for that. And it shows that your heart is so much for the Lord. I'm anxious to hear your testimony. You want to step in?
[00:44:03] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: All right.
[00:44:15] Speaker C: I grew up Catholic, and I've always believed in God and that Jesus died for my sins. I went through the Catholic sacraments of baptism, Eucharist, and confirmation.
I'm super grateful to my mom, who took us to church and encouraged me to be involved with the church. My first job was actually at our church. I worked at the reception desk.
However, I had a period in my life where Jesus was not the focus of my life.
I did not repent for my sins. I didn't attend church.
I didn't read the Bible, and I rarely spoke to God.
After I joined vce, and especially after going on the youth mission trip to North Carolina, I knew I wanted to do better.
I am not perfect as none of us are, but I will continue to live a life that allows me to grow in God's glory. And that is why I want to be baptized.
I heard something the other day that really stuck with me, and it was, you don't live a Christian life to be saved. You live a Christian life because you are saved.
I'd like to read a passage from John 10, verses 28 through 30.
I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.
No one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one.
I love this passage because it reminds me that I didn't find God. He found me.
God has his grip on me and will never abandon me. When I struggle, he will hold me.
So even during the period of my life when Jesus wasn't my focus, God was still with me and I was still saved. But now I want my actions to represent my salvation.
I want to publicly declare that I belong to Jesus Christ.
I believe that God sent his only son, Jesus, to die on the cross for my sins and for my salvation.
I believe God is perfect and I am a sinner.
I believe Jesus rose again and is coming back.
My faith and my trust are in Jesus alone.
[00:46:35] Speaker A: All right.
All right.
If you would face that way and have a seat.
Very good.
All right, Lindsay, big moment.
You have done a great job of declaring your faith in Jesus. Jesus Christ. And so I ask you as my sister, have you accepted Christ as your savior and know that your sins are forgiven based upon your profession of faith, and in accordance with his word, I baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Good job.
Good job.
All right. I'd like to pray with both of you. Is Mary gone already? Mary, you're back there. That's fine. You can stay back there. I just want to pray for you. Church, Would you join me in prayer? Father, we are grateful for these ladies. Grateful for their testimony of faith. Grateful for what you've been doing in their lives and the faith that has been growing in them since childhood. And even from these parents and family that have invested and prayed for them for so many years, to see this step of obedience and the steps. A step of faith has to be so thrilling, because I know it is for our church as well. May you continue to use them, grow them, use them to build your kingdom in this family, this local church here in Carroll Stream. And wherever you lead them in the future, may their families have your blessing over them constantly. May you pour their love. Pour your love in them, on them, and through them, to all that they meet. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
All right. Good job.
[00:48:09] Speaker C: Thank you.
